


there's a happier ending somewhere

by amonkeysue



Category: Avengers Academy (Video Game), Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel's Avengers (Video Game), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29066400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amonkeysue/pseuds/amonkeysue
Summary: Glimpses into the multiverse: 1 universe where Katie doesn't get happier times with Clint and Natasha (and Kate), and 5 where she does.
Relationships: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Katie Barton & Kate Bishop
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	1. Comics (Captain Marvel)

**Author's Note:**

> Happy one year anniversary to "Captain Marvel: The End" and happy birthday to all the kids introduced in there, but especially Katie!
> 
> Funnily enough I've had the general idea of incorporating Katie into various canons for a while now, but I still ended up finishing this only this morning, oops. (Although the most recent episodes of Critical Role and WandaVision were pretty distracting, to be fair!) Some of them are definitely more detailed glimpses than others, and I wanted to toy a little bit with some biological and adopted parenthood scenarios, of which I admittedly have so many more short ideas for some of these universes, haha!

She didn’t really remember her parents.

There were maybe vague memories of being hugged and proud laughter and smiles as she took a toddling step. Katie was also realistic enough to admit she probably manufactured remembering anything that young to cling to something more substantial than a picture and their legacy.

It helped a little bit to be in the same boat of “mostly orphaned children of the world’s heroes” with the other kids, but it was still a different beast for each of them to grapple with.

Especially when stuck in the aftermath of world decimating events.

Without an anticipated chance of manifesting powers, Katie had picked up the bow out of an urge to be useful and to take after Hawkeye the parent and Hawkeye the namesake.

Whether it was out of some inherent skill or sheer determination or some more combination of the two, she was good with the bow, honing her skills over the years into being just as good a sharpshooter as they had been.

It felt good to have Emma tell her that much one night. Hearing it from Jessica had been special on its own, but Emma’s affirmation felt a little harder earned.

She had stayed up late that night in thought while occasionally staring at the family photo she miraculously had.

It had been taken at Avengers Tower while she was a baby, Natasha holding her and Clint with one arm around Natasha as they both smiled down at her and Katie clearly beaming back at them. 

Not really remembering them didn’t mean she didn’t miss them more than anything.


	2. Avengers Academy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taking a few liberties with the Avengers Academy verse to incorporate Katie in there!

“Pepper’s showing a new student around,” Janet said with a bright smile as she slid into the seat across the cafeteria table from Clint and Natasha. “And you will not believe what her name is!”

Natasha raised one eyebrow at her. “Are you planning on telling us?”

“Duh.” Janet’s smile widened as she looked between them, ending on Clint. “Apparently she’s Katie Barton, so definitely related!”

“Huh,” Clint said with a slow nod. “Anything to indicate how?”

“She’s got red hair, and her name is Katie Barton.” Delight twinkled in Janet’s eyes. “I think she’s totally your kid from another universe!”

Natasha and Clint stared at each other for a moment before he repeated himself. “Huh.”

Janet pursed her lips. “Oh c’mon, I was expecting a bigger reaction.”

“I want to at least see her before coming to any conclusions,” Natasha said, her expression and tone revealing nothing of her emotions.

Clint nodded again. “Thanks for letting us know though.”

\--

Natasha immediately set out to learn as much as she could about Katie. Like many of the Academy’s students, details were slim, and Fury had long since figured to be selective about what information made its way onto official files.

She did seem to be from a different universe in fitting with Janet’s theory, and her name and appearance were certainly… convincing.

Kate had similar suspicions and joined Clint in giving a combined archer’s welcome to Katie, all too happy to introduce her to the range.

“She’s great,” he enthusiastically told Natasha at the end of the day. “Just as good a shot as Kate and I, funny, really excited to be here. You should definitely spend some time with her.”

“Any indication that she recognizes you?”

Clint shook his head. “Not overtly, but you know it’s not unusual for Fury to encourage some secrets or maybe some memory fun going on.” He reached for her hand. “Gotta admit, it’s not the weirdest thing to happen here.”

Natasha nodded. “If she doesn’t already know, Janet’s already got everyone talking about it.” She lightly squeezed his hand. “It’s… actually nice to think that some alternate, older version of us is… settled in some way.”

“Aww, Nat.” He grinned at her. “You know I really like you too.”

She rolled her eyes while leaning up into a quick kiss. “You’re such a dork.”

\--

As confusing as it occasionally got to refer to Katie and Kate side by side, they made a consistent group on campus with Clint and Natasha.

Katie was settling in well, comfortably navigating everyone’s antics and anticipating Loki’s nickname at any point. She hadn’t brought up any “so you’re my parents in another universe” conversations with Clint or Natasha, but they had become decent friends, Katie regularly joining Clint and Kate for target practice and occasionally accompanying Natasha to training sessions beyond general socializing.

Perhaps most importantly for the purposes of the Academy, Katie quickly took to dancing, happily spending plenty of evenings with the activities on the dance floor.

Janet’s end of semester party had plenty of dancing on the itinerary, with almost the entire student body in attendance.

Katie and Kate had jointly talked Clint and Natasha into joining them on the dance floor when Janet flitted into view beside them with a camera in hand.

“Pete and I are getting some yearbook photos,” she informed, “everyone say ‘cheese!’”

She snapped a couple photos in the next few seconds before moving on.

Katie laughed as Janet left. “Have I ever mentioned how much I love this school?”


	3. Earth's Mightiest Heroes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AKA part of my "Clint and Natasha REALLY deserve to just spend some time together" agenda for EMH

Of all the things to happen in the weeks after fighting off a planet-eating entity, Clint hadn’t expected a teenager with a bow to show up unannounced to Avengers Mansion asking to see him.

One thing led to another and he shifted to part time Avenger, part time mentor to Kate Bishop.

As unexpected a development as she had been, Clint was thrilled to share the Hawkeye mantle as she grew to rival his own shooting skills.

“You would be the one to find a second Hawkeye,” Natasha teased on one of their “we’re briefly in the same city again” dates.

“Hey, she found me. I just agreed to train her.” Clint smiled and shrugged. “The world needs more archers.”

A little more than a month later Natasha asked if he would accompany her on one of her assignments from Fury and Clint wholeheartedly recommended Kate up to full Avenger status.

Knowing that the team had a Hawkeye still on call, he didn’t feel bad about prolonging his time with Natasha. They made long distance work around their commitments, but they weren’t going to complain about spending an extended period of time right around each other.

An extra week turned into a couple weeks into a month, starting the next year’s pattern of Clint visiting the Avengers to help with whatever supervillain they were up against and Kate occasionally visiting him and Natasha.

It led into Tony staring openmouthed when Natasha finally accompanied Clint to the mansion in celebration of the Avengers’ anniversary and Clint was carrying a baby with a full head of red hair.

“This is a trick,” he carefully started to say as Clint grinned. “You hired a baby to prank us?” Tony narrowed his eyes. “Did you kidnap a baby?”

Natasha coolly narrowed her eyes back. “No.”

Tony’s follow-up question was interrupted by an excited squeak from Janet from the other side of the room. “You have a BABY?” She shrunk and flew over before returning to her usual size in front of Clint, her attention fully focused on the baby as it blinked up at her. “This explains why your visit became permanent!”

“A little bit.” Clint proudly smiled and slightly bounced the baby. “This is Katie. She’s almost eight months old and has the cutest smile.”

With everyone’s attention focused on them after Janet’s exclamation, Kate had quickly rushed over with a grin. “You brought her!”

“I didn’t think Clint could keep her secret for much longer,” Natasha remarked with a knowing side smile for him.

Tony held up a hand. “I’m still stuck on the two of you having a kid and not entirely convinced this isn’t just a prank.”

“Oh please,” Kate said, “she’s named after me, of course she’s legit.” She nudged in beside Janet to beam at Katie. “And the cutest.”

Katie giggled up at her and eagerly waved her arms.

“I’m still stuck on you having a kid,” Tony said, clearly starting to run the numbers in the back of his head.

“Don’t hurt yourself on the details,” Natasha replied with a touch of wry amusement.

“Just matters that we’re the ones taking care of her,” Clint said as he softly smiled down at Katie.

Natasha set her hand on his shoulder. “We’re getting a crowd who wants to see her.”

“Right.” Clint looked up with a grin. “Let’s go introduce you to everyone, kiddo.”

“This is going to be so fun!” Janet happily said. “I want to be Aunt Jan.”

Natasha fixed Tony with a pointed look as Clint started to step away. “If I see you attempting to poke her with anything…” She opted to let it hang as a threat.

He innocently held up both hands. “I promise not to try any tests on Katie, really. And congratulations. Parenthood’s a big deal.”

“Thank you, Stark.”

Kate cleared her throat beside Natasha. “Any complaint about me finally sharing the story of the major spit-up incident?”

“I trust you to know what details to leave out.” Natasha half paid attention to Kate starting into the story as Tony expressed interest, more focused on watching with a faint smile as Clint carefully transferred Katie into Thor’s arms, delight written across his features.

They had made the right call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was one I very purposefully left (hopefully) open ended for whether Katie was biological or adopted(ish), though if the more specific idea I've got ever strikes me enough to turn into a whole fic there's definitely some fun backstory and all in the lead up to the spit-up incident ;)


	4. Marvel Cinematic Universe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of background first: this version of the MCU is selectively canon compliant (obviously, lol), but I imagine this after an alternate version of Infinity War/Endgame with a lot better of plans and a lot less character death...

By all accounts, she should have been impossible.

But whether it was a biological miracle or some unexpected blessing in disguise from saving the universe, Natasha and Clint found themselves in the situation of being expectant parents shortly into taking an actual vacation after defeating Thanos.

They weren’t even confident that a pregnancy would go to term, but after several lengthy conversations and some medical consultation had decided they were willing to give it a shot.

Semi-retirement to only occasionally help the team had been an adjustment, with Clint happening into a protégé in Kate Bishop through sheer chance in the meantime.

In Clint’s words, she was an exceptionally gifted archer and an absolute delight, albeit with occasional moments of acting a little bit spoiled (said with affection).

Even for just knowing Kate for only a little more than half a year, Clint and Natasha were in agreement that naming their little girl after her felt right.

Katie Philippa Barton made an early morning entrance to the world and an instant impression on everyone who met her.

Kate definitely broke into happy tears at the chance to hold her, and it was something to see Nick Fury happily interacting with a baby, the sight of which only Clint and Natasha were lucky enough to see.

The other Avengers were thrilled to be effective aunts and uncles, and admittedly having some extra hands to occasionally help made the initial shift to parenting a bit easier.

They had a little bit of experience with the occasional baby related to a mission, but the newborn stage was especially out of their depth and there were plenty of hiccups as Katie marked off month milestones.

Natasha and Clint were more than willing to admit parenthood was one of the most challenging things they had ever done, but all it took was a snuggle and coo from Katie to make it feel that much more manageable. It was frustrating and taxing and yet simultaneously rewarding in ways they had never anticipated.

After six months they switched off on occasionally heading back into the field and otherwise helping to run logistics and coordination, fully conscious that they had a little girl to come back to and thus that some risks just weren’t worth taking.

“How are we this lucky?” Natasha murmured one night as they watched a movie on the couch, Katie having already fallen asleep against her shoulder.

Clint shrugged with an affectionate smile. “Dunno, but I’m not complaining. Wouldn’t trade this for the world.”


	5. MCU/Comic Fusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The background is basically what it says on the tin: combining some elements of both general verses with a healthy side of headcanon for a general AU, hopefully it's not confusing!

“I don’t know if we’re going to be able to make it back in time, these HYDRA goons are putting up a decent fight,” Kate apologetically said.

On his end of the phone call in the Avengers Compound, Clint nodded despite knowing she couldn’t see it. “She’ll understand, just get back safely when you can, Hawkeye.”

“I’m working on it, Hawkeye.” The sound of what might have been something exploding in the background followed, prompting an annoyed groan from Kate. “Oop, gotta go!”

“Bye,” Clint managed to say before she hung up. With a shrug he stepped back into the kitchen, where Katie was concentrated on frosting a couple dozen cupcakes. “Okay, how’re we looking?” Clint asked as he walked over.

She didn’t look at him as she replied. “We can decorate soon, I’m almost done.”

It was moments like this that made him internally wonder how it had really been a whole ten years, like he had just blinked and Katie was suddenly no longer the baby who loved snuggles and had the funniest giggle, instead the kid who had insisted on taking charge of the decorations and some of the food prep for her birthday party.

“Anything else you want me to help with in the meantime?” he asked Katie.

“Can you check on how putting up the lights is going for Mom and Uncle Steve?”

“On it.”

Natasha glanced down as he walked in from where she was on a short ladder and working on crisscrossing string lights across the living room. “Did she kick you out of the kitchen?” she asked with a faint smirk.

He chuckled and shook his head. “I’m supposed to report on your progress, actually.”

“I think we should be done in about another fifteen minutes at most, right on schedule.” Natasha tested the give as she secured a strand before she accepted another from Steve and started to attach them.

“I just hope we’re living up to what she’s imagining,” Steve said as he held the other half of the strand up to help keep it from weighing down too awkwardly for Natasha.

Clint shrugged. “It’s looking great, she’s going to love it.” After a second he added, “Kate called just a bit ago, says she might end up running a little late. I haven’t told Katie yet, figure we’ll wait and see until we get a better ETA.”

“How serious a delay?” Natasha asked with a raised eyebrow as she caught Clint’s gaze.

“Sounds like the goons are putting up a better resistance than originally anticipated, probably causing a few explosions. Good news is she wasn’t too concerned for safety, just added time.”

Steve broke into his iconic Captain America frown. “They were going to a HYDRA lab, right?”

“Yup, mostly an infiltration and smash and grab mission.”

“Hmm.”

“If you want to go to mission control to see how it’s going, that’s fine with me,” Natasha said while stepping down the ladder. “Clint and I can finish off the lights easily enough.”

“I can wait.” He supportively smiled at Clint while following Natasha as she shifted the ladder by several feet. “Feel free to report that we’re almost done.”

Clint nodded back and returned to the kitchen as Katie finished with the frosting step on all the cupcakes. They jointly decorated with sprinkles and sugar decorations, Katie directing the creative decisions.

When the cupcakes were finished and put aside, Katie was all too happy to personally go check on the lights and excitedly gasped at the sight.

“It looks so good,” she contently sighed to Natasha. “This is going to be the best birthday.”

\--

Kate managed to only be a little late after changing out of her uniform into something a little more casual, arriving with America and both of them glancing around in search of the birthday girl.

“You made it!”

She laughed as Katie eagerly met her in a hug. “Wow, you made a better party than I would’ve. How long did this all take?”

“A few hours, with help.” Katie beamed. “But two birthdays deserve something special.”

It was still one of the funniest twists of fate, Katie and Kate sharing a birthday.

America chuckled as Katie also hugged her. “Hard to believe you’ve been around for a whole decade now.”

“No kidding,” Kate said while waving to Clint and Natasha as they chatted with Sharon and Carol.

Katie grabbed Kate’s hand and started to tug her towards the side of the room. “Now that you’re here Dani and Morgan have something to show us, let’s go!”

Kate laughed again and let herself be pulled along. “Lead the way, birthday girl.”


	6. Marvel's Avengers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eventually I'll write out my post-campaign/post-DLC Clintasha fic (though probably not until after the Clint DLC now, tbh), but for the purposes of this, just figure that Clint is back on his feet and he and Natasha are steadily in a relationship.

Responding to reports of AIM kidnapping several Inhuman families became an Avengers level priority instantly, with Hank providing a debrief en route to the base the families had been moved to.

As far as AIM bases went, it wasn’t anything outside of the usual for them to go up against.

Unfortunately, they hadn’t been able to get there fast enough to keep some of the adults with new Inhuman abilities from being moved to a separate base for research. The remaining adults and older children passed on what they had heard, but it wasn’t much to go off of for following.

The team freeing everyone from their experimentation cells apparently triggered one last line of defense in the form of several Adaptoids, immediately sending them scrambling to get the families out of the way.

Clint scooped up the closest toddler and ran to a hopefully safe distance before setting her down behind him and working on sniping the Adaptoids as Kate teleported a couple more kids behind him before vanishing back for another two.

With the full team and only a few Adaptoids it wasn’t a difficult fight, and Theo came by to start taking people to the Ant Hill almost immediately after they fell.

Clint started to try and comfort the crying kids, completely taken by surprise as the toddler threw herself at him in a hug. “Hey, okay…” He supportively patted her back while speaking to all the kids. “It’s just the Avengers now, I promise, no more scary robots. It’s gonna be okay, we’re getting you out of here to someplace safe.”

A few parents and older siblings walked over with relieved expressions to claim the other children, no one taking the toddler who was tightly holding onto him.

He didn’t look up as Kate walked up beside him, focusing more on the little girl. “Hey, uh, do you have a name?”

The toddler sniffled and nodded. “Katie.”

“Katie, huh?” He pointed at Kate. “Funny story, you’re not the only Katie here, that’s what I call her too.”

Kate encouragingly smiled at Katie. “But everyone else can call me Kate instead, you can be Katie.”

Clint stood after gauging to see if Katie was willing to let go, confused but somehow unsurprised as she clung to him. “So, uh, do you see your mom and dad anywhere here?” he asked while turning to face Katie to the rest of the area.

She looked around before shaking her head, more tears appearing in her eyes. “I don’t see Mommy and Daddy.”

“That’s okay.” He nervously eyed the dwindling amount of people Theo had left to transport, already guessing the answer. “We can go ask if anyone else has seen them.”

Natasha intercepted them a few steps over and cast Katie a careful look before leaning up to whisper in his ear. “Both her parents were moved, according to one of the other adults.”

“So what the hell do we tell her?” he whispered back, trying to keep his voice as low as possible.

Kate loudly cleared her throat before supportively smiling at Katie. “We’ll find your parents, do you want to go with the other kids?”

Katie started crying and collapsed against Clint’s shoulder, eliciting a stunned expression from him.

“Huh,” Natasha murmured, mild confusion pulling at her features.

Theo and Kamala tried to coax Katie from Clint, but she seemed determined to stick with him, prompting him to relent to going to the Ant Hill with her while the rest of the team took up the trail of the other Inhumans.

Katie eventually relaxed enough to not have to be right by Clint, but it wasn’t hard to tell that she was attached to him for whatever reason, prompting him not to wander too far out of sight.

“It’s like she imprinted on you,” Kate remarked when she came back to the Ant Hill, AIM unfortunately having concealed their tracks too well to follow directly after the Inhumans. JARVIS and Tony were working with Hank and SHIELD to try to find something they could trace, but everyone couldn’t help the looming sense of failure they felt.

In the meantime, Natasha talking to Clint led to the small surprise of Katie latching onto her too, contently squashing herself in between them while reading what age appropriate books were on hand.

“Don’t say it,” Natasha warned when Hank and Tony came over to speak with them, both men’s eyebrows practically shooting up.

“Apparently I kinda resemble her dad, according to one of the other kids,” Clint added with a pointed look in Tony’s direction.

“Sure,” he said with a nod, barely pausing before adding, “We think we’ve got something that might be them.”

Natasha and Clint looked at each other over Katie, somehow seeming to have almost a whole conversation before he nodded. “I’m clearly a needed comfort, I can stay.”

The team didn’t return with good news.

There had been a swarm of Blitz Proto-Synthoids with the prisoner convoy, one of which prematurely exploded early enough to set off the others and turn the convoy into a fiery blaze.

They got as many people out as they could, but some of the adults had sustained too severe of injuries to survive, Katie’s parents unfortunately among them.

As she slept for the night, Clint and Natasha had a long conversation before pulling Hank and the team in.

No one was confident how to tell Katie about her parents, and the plan was to see what some of the other parents thought to do. In the meantime, Clint was okay with staying close if she found him a comforting presence.

At the end of the conversation, Tony lightheartedly told Clint and Natasha, “You know, she could pass for your kid if you ever feel like adopting.”

“I’m no mother,” Natasha flatly said, only Clint catching the note of vulnerability that flashed through her expression.

Kate caught her after. “I’m about to be a little sappy but for what it’s worth, and I’m sure Kamala would have something to say too, you don’t have to be anything like a traditional mother figure to be a great inspiration, regardless of what you and Clint do for Katie. I know I wasn’t a little kid when we met, but I looked up to you, and I still do.”

“That is pretty sappy,” Clint commented from where he sat several feet away, smiling as both women fixed him with a partial glare.

“I’m trying to have a private moment over here,” Kate complained before angling back to Natasha with a slightly sheepish expression. “Whatever you do, you’ll be great. You can do anything.”

Natasha genuinely smiled back. “Thank you, Kate. It means… more than you know.”

**TWO YEARS LATER, NEW AVENGERS TOWER**

They both woke up to the sound of mischievous giggles and only had time to catch each other’s eye and brace before Lucky and Katie jumped up onto the bed.

“Katie, we’ve talked about this,” Natasha sighed even as she hid a smile.

“It was Lucky’s idea!” the five year-old declared while patting his back. “He wants pancakes.”

“Does he now?” Clint wryly asked as he sat up and greeted Lucky. “I thought Steve made the best pancakes around here.”

Natasha started to push herself out from underneath the sheets. “You’re forgetting that JARVIS locked the elevator when we’re not with her from the suite.”

Part of settling back into the reclaimed Avengers Tower had been establishing some basic child-proofing measures for when Katie was around, only to continually need to add as she grew up and especially almost seemed to pick up some tricks from the team. If she had some Inhuman ability she had yet to manifest it, but they remained in anticipation just in case.

It was never a dull day with her around.

Clint and Natasha hesitated to consider themselves anywhere near adoptive parents to her, but they were definitely some sort of guardian and were happy to be there for her.

“We can make some pancakes,” Clint told Katie with a little laugh. “Just let us get out of bed first, yeah?”

She enthusiastically nodded and jumped off to race towards the kitchen.

Natasha leaned over to pet Lucky’s side as Katie left. “We could spoil her with some chocolate chips in there.” She smirked. “Steve doesn’t.”

“We can cement our status as the favorites,” Clint agreed while leaning over to quickly kiss her on the lips.

“Mmm,” she hummed as he pulled back. “I don’t think that’s ever been in question.”

Katie leaned back through the doorway, her eyes bright even as mild impatience colored her tone. “Are you coming?”

“Right behind you,” Clint reassured as he prompted Lucky off the bed before following after him. “And how would you feel about chocolate chip pancakes today?”

“Yes!” Katie jumped with an excited sound and hovered long enough mid-jump to inadvertently prompt Clint and Natasha to widen their eyes.

“Let’s add Kamala to breakfast plans,” Natasha murmured after a stunned second.

He nodded back. “I’ll get the pancakes going if you call.”

“Deal.”


End file.
